Featured Scholar:
Juan Botero
2002 - 2003 University Scholar
Mentor: Juan Carlos Molleda
College of Journalism and Communications
Colombia is in the midst of a civil war, and Americans are
funding both sides. On one side are the guerrilla groups, funded by Colombia’s
cocaine trade, which is largely supported by American drug users. On the
other side is Plan Colombia, an anti-drug offensive funded by US tax dollars.
Juan Botero, who was born and raised in Colombia, is trying to make sense
of it all.
“The Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces is very strong in Colombia
right now,” he says. “What they do is take care of illegal
drug crops and sell them to buy weapons on the black market, which are
used to fight the government. The Colombian government doesn’t have
enough people or money to cover the whole territory, so the places that
are more distant from the cities are free to do whatever they want. So
the money that is coming from the states is being used to train more policemen
and more armies and providing more weapons so that the Colombian government
can be at the level of the guerillas.”
Called “Plan Colombia,” the US funded counter-drug operation
was launched in June 2000 as part of the US “War on Drugs”
and, at the time, made Colombia the third largest recipient of US foreign
aid, after Israel and Egypt. But the plan is controversial in the United
States, where opponents criticize the plan’s heavy focus on militarizing
the government.
“The money is going into building up the arsenal—helicopters
and weapons—when people say what they need to do is to build up
the national institutions so they can rule themselves instead of everybody
fighting,” Juan says. “Ideally, if you want to deal with this
kind of thing you have to educate, you can’t just arm. The problem
is really complex. Country people are growing the coca and marijuana crops,
and they are not doing it because they want to, but because it’s
a necessity. Either they’re being threatened by the drug lords to
do it or the economy is so bad that there is nothing else they can do
to provide food for their families.”
Though often viewed throughout the world as US interference, Juan says
Plan Colombia was actually initiated by the Colombian government. As a
public relations senior, Juan’s USP project focuses on the public
relations strategies that were used by Colombia when it petitioned the
US to aid in its fight against the guerrillas that have all but overthrown
the government.
“Colombia started a campaign here in the states to promote a better
image,” Juan says. “They hired a US public relations company
and took out advertising in the New York Times and the Washington
Post to recruit businesses and influence Congress. They also flew
key officials to Colombia to give them a better feel for the reality of
the country.”
Juan got the idea for his USP project from his mentor, Juan Carlos Molleda,
a public relations professor who grew up next door to Colombia in Venezuela.
“I took an international public relations course with him and was
helping him out with some translations,” Juan says. “He suggested
the USP and thought we should work on a project on Colombia.” Juan’s
paper, “Public Relations and Public Diplomacy for Plan Colombia”
won a Best Qualitative Paper Award in the 2002-2003 USP Best Paper competition.
Juan, who moved to the US with his father in 1994, hasn’t been to
Colombia since Plan Colombia was established. His USP project brought
him up-to-date on what is going on in his home country. “When I
was studying, I felt that Plan Colombia was too military driven,”
he says. “I didn’t feel that things like hospitals and universities
were given enough attention, but I do think Plan Colombia was a necessary
step, a right step, because people now have a little more confidence in
government and a little more stability.”
Upon graduating from UF in December of 2003, Juan plans to apply to law
schools in south Florida, in order to be closer to his father who lives
in Miami. He hopes to practice international law and some day serve as
a diplomat between the US and Colombia. “I would love to be involved
in a diplomatic environment, where I can be a liaison between the US and
Colombian government,” he says. “My dream is to work for the
United Nations. That would be incredible. But I think I have a long way
to go before reaching that goal.”
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